Free Republic

Not long ago, President Biden promised to transform the American auto industry — “first with carrots, now with sticks” is the analogy The Washington Post used. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I’d trust the president to drive my car, much less dictate the future of industrial policy. Yet Biden implemented draconian emissions limits for all vehicles, ensuring that within nine years 67% of all new passenger cars and trucks will be electric. In the old days, a centralized state controlling manufacturing and commerce, production, prices, wages and conditions in our biggest sectors would be called...

Car manufacturers are slowing their transition to producing electric vehicles (EVs), because of low customer demand and production problems. Mercedes-Benz announced to investors in March of this year that it is going back on its pledge to sell only fully electric cars by 2030. Instead, investors were told that the company plans to continue to make gasoline-powered cars well into the next decade. Fully electric cars and hybrids will account for only up to half of its sales by 2030. It appears that carmakers are suffering after committing wholeheartedly to the ideological fad of EVs, rather than introducing them as...

3:07 If Democrat-run California wants to force residents into electric vehicles (EVs), Democrat-run California had better start cracking down on crime. Talk about the law of unintended consequences… “Thieves are targeting high-powered Tesla and other EV charging stations and stealing the heavy cable for the copper metal inside,” reports San Francisco’s NBC affiliate. “In Vallejo, someone cut cables from nine charging stations — leaving Tesla drivers in a bind and causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage and repair costs.” “I think this is the second time or third that these have been cut,” a local EV driver added....

President Joe Biden suggested Tuesday it is false that his administration is restricting consumer choice in the automobile market, but his administration recently finalized a rule that will force electric vehicles (EVs) to make up a much larger share of overall auto sales over the next decade. Biden made the remark during a Tuesday speech about his administration’s decision to significantly bolster tariffs against Chinese products including steel, semiconductor chips and EV batteries. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule in March that requires manufacturers to make EVs constitute between 35% and 56% of new cars sold in 2032,...

EVs may be safer for the environment but owners claim the vehicles are causing harm to their health. There are growing reports of electric car drivers suffering motion sickness, dizziness and nausea from the vehicles' braking and acceleration systems. And a former Tesla owner has claimed that she experienced nosebleeds, hair loss and 'debilitating' body pains while using the vehicle she purchased in 2021. While she was not entirely sure the Tesla was at fault, the Georgia resident and said her symptoms disappeared after selling the car. Tesla owners have had to trade in some models because the air conditioning...

Ford’s attempt to electrify its revenue through electric vehicle production has been a swing and a miss. In response to the decreasing market for EVs, Ford has begun cutting orders from its battery supplies, according to Bloomberg. Even though this changeup will be beneficial in the long run, Ford will not come out of its EV experiment unscathed. Sources told Bloomberg that Ford lost over $100,000 per EV in the first quarter of 2024, more than double its deficit from last year. The news comes as the EV market across the country has taken a hit in 2024. The Associated...

Sixty years ago, Ford unveiled the Mustang – and it changed everything. Prior to 1964 – the year of the first Mustang’s debut – there was no such thing as a “pony car.” Soon, there were so many of them it was hard to keep track of them. One of them was the Chevy Camaro, which appeared just in time for the 1967 model year. Its time has just run out because GM has pulled the plug – because GM knows a Camaro with a plug is as oxymoronic as Elvis without the voice (and the presence). In a backhanded...

Bay Area dog trainer Josh Beckler stumbled upon an unusual sight last Sunday on his way to the gym. As he pulled his Tesla into the parking lot of a Target complex in Vallejo, he noticed the row of supercharging stations had been vandalized. Taking out his phone, he recorded a video as he walked down the row of 20 stations, highlighting that every charging cable that connects power to the electric vehicles had been cut. “You would think that it’s a protest or some symbol of activism,” Beckler said with a chuckle in the video. “But it’s not. It’s...

This photo shows BYD electric cars awaiting to be loaded onto a ship at the international container terminal of Taicang Port at Suzhou Port, eastern Jiangsu Province, China, Sept. 11, 2023. (AFP Photo) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Biden administration is reportedly set to impose major new tariffs on electric vehicles (EVs), semiconductors, solar equipment and medical supplies imported from China, according to a U.S. official and another person familiar with the plan. Tariffs on electric vehicles, in particular, could quadruple from the existing 25% to 100%. The people described the plan on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to provide...

<p>'Any car company that’s not paying attention to them as a competitor is going to be lost when they hit their market. BYD’s entry into the U.S. market isn’t an if. It's a when....'</p><p>The car, launched last year by Chinese automaker BYD, sells for around $12,000 in China, but drives well and is put together with craftsmanship that rivals U.S.-made electric vehicles that cost three times as much. A shorter-range version costs under $10,000.</p>

Ford reported losing over $100,000 per electric vehicle sold in the first quarter of 2022, with its electric vehicle division posting a $1.3 billion loss. Electric vehicle sales volumes dropped 20% as Ford was forced to slash prices due to weak industry demand. “Americans don’t want EVs at levels Biden’s climate hysteria require,” businessman Andrew Puzder wrote on X. “Ford’s EV Q1 losses soared to $1.3 billion — a ridiculous $132,000 per EV sold. All Ford’s profits came from combustion engine vehicle sales. Collectivist policies destroy prosperity.” The company expects $5 billion in electric vehicle losses for the year, up...

A car thief behind the wheel of a Lamborghini in Los Angeles fled the police at more than 100 miles per hour and moments later crashed the vehicle, totaling it and getting thrown hundreds of feet from the wreck. He died at the scene. Thieves are not usually very smart and this guy was no exception. People who have never been behind the wheel of a vehicle like the Lamborghini have no idea how much power these cars have and how easily you can lose control. This man found out the hard way. This happened in April but the footage...

You might understand the shock that Hertz customer Joshua Lee felt when he saw the receipt for his rented Tesla Model 3. After returning the vehicle back to Hertz following a weekend vacation in Los Angeles, Lee noticed he was hit with additional charge of $277.39 on top of his initial reservation price. Why was he charged so much additional money? According to Hertz, that was the cost of refueling the electric Model 3. Unfortunately for Lee, the further he pried the company for information, the more Hertz doubled down, and the more confused he became.

Safety concerns around electric vehicles continue to mount with Australian fire and rescue services in New South Wales stating they might have to make a “tactical disengagement” of a trapped car accident victim if the battery is likely to explode. Australian journalist Jo Nova covered the story, which was first mentioned in the EV blog The Driven, and commented: “They say the first responders need more training as if this can be solved with a certificate, but the dark truth is they’re talking about training the firemen and the truck drivers to recognise when they have to abandon the rescue.”...

Converting America’s medium- and heavy-duty trucks to electric vehicles (EV) in accordance with goals from the Biden administration would add massive costs to commercial trucking, according to a new analysis released Wednesday. The cost to switch over to light-duty EVs like a transit van would equate to a 5% increase in costs per year while switching over medium- and heavy-duty trucks would add up to 114% in costs per year to already struggling businesses, according to a report from transportation and logistics company Ryder Systems. The Biden administration, in an effort to facilitate a transition to EVs, finalized new emission...

Shares of Rivian Automotive Inc. fell 4% in the extended session Tuesday after the EV maker posted mixed quarterly results, reporting a wider-than-expected loss but revenue above Wall Street’s expectations. Rivian RIVN lost $1.45 billion, or $1.48 a share, in the first quarter, compared with a loss of $1.35 billion, or $1.45 a share, in the year-ago quarter.

Elon Musk’s Tesla, the leading electric vehicle manufacturer, has slashed even more workers from the payroll following weeks of massive layoffs, leaving employees on edge and seeking closure. Business Insider reports that Tesla has been conducting a series of layoffs over the past four weeks. The latest round of cuts, which took place on Sunday night, has left employees uncertain about their future with the company. According to Business Insider, four workers reported that their managers notified them of additional cuts to their teams on Monday morning, while several Tesla workers took to LinkedIn to share their experiences of receiving...

A new type of hybrid sodium-ion battery that offers both high capacity and rapid-charging capabilities could power mobile devices, electric vehicles and space tech. Researchers have developed a new coin-type sodium-based battery that can charge rapidly “in seconds” and could potentially power everything from smartphones to electric vehicles (EVs) in the future. By combining anode materials used in conventional batteries with cathodes from supercapacitors — batteries that can store and deliver energy at very high rates –– the scientists created a new type of sodium-ion battery that offers both high capacity and rapid-charging capabilities. They were looking for a way...

New technologies that will make monitoring drivers' behavior easy and comprehensive … will soon also be mandatory.H.R. 3684, an “infrastructure” bill signed by Joe Biden in 2021 included a provision mandating expanded monitoring of folks as they drive an automobile. And henceforth the intrusive technologies will be required in all new vehicles being manufactured and sold in the U.S.New vehicles will be required to have passive monitoring systems to assess each driver’s behavior. An algorithm will determine if the driver is too impaired to operate the vehicle. If so, the vehicle will either be disabled, or some as yet unexplained...

At $1.5 million per job, this new incentive package from the state is at least 15 times the norm. For this much money, the state could have just handed out a million bucks to 827 people, instead of creating 550 jobs.Gov. JB Pritzker announced Thursday that the State of Illinois will provide an $827 million incentive package for Rivian to invest $1.5 billion to expand its electric vehicle factory in Normal, Illinois. The expansion is expected to create at least 550 full-time jobs within the next five years, and will build Rivian’s next model EV, the R2. Rivian initially got...